


Of Cardinals and Kings

by blueteak



Category: The Borgias
Genre: Character Study, Dubious Consent, Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-07
Updated: 2012-04-07
Packaged: 2017-11-03 05:50:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/377986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueteak/pseuds/blueteak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>King Charles considers his papal legate on the road to Naples.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Cardinals and Kings

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a "hostage Cesare/King Charles" prompt on borgiaskink.

Cesare Borgia does not do diplomatic readings of tea leaves like his beautiful and surprisingly persuasive sister. Nor does he use his religion to justify his ambitions like his father. Indeed, Charles often wonders whether his papal legate even has religion, so apparent is Cesare’s misery when he’s in his robes. While Cesare is not at all what he had expected, he’s hardly trying to be a man of mystery. Cesare is refreshingly easy to read, even if Charles is sometimes shocked by what he finds in him.

And so at supper, when Cesare mumbles under his breath that canons, not canon law, will provide the effect that Charles is seeking, Charles is amused--and horrified enough to cross himself at Cesare’s blasphemy-- but not surprised, even though he feigns it for the sake of his men. “Such a statement from a papal legate, Cardinal? What would your father say?”

Cesare dips his head for a moment, then meets Charles’s gaze with a slight smile and raises a brow. “We both know I’m no papal legate, Your Grace.” 

Charles had not thought that even Cesare would be this blunt. He’s not certain he likes it. He allows a note of warning to enter his voice though his face appears merely inquisitive. “Oh? Then who are you, Cardinal?”

Cesare grins wider and throw his arms open as though being a hostage is the most liberating thing he can imagine. “No one.”

Ah. So Cesare’s wise enough not to bring things to a head by calling himself a hostage in front of men who might just treat him more like one, or suggest that Charles will be seen as weak if he does not. By the looks on some of their faces as they take in Cesare’s wine-flushed cheeks and clever retorts, it seems they’d be only too happy to take Cardinal ‘No One,’ to bed, slake some of the lust for conquest Charles had denied them in Rome on an irreverent, well-born man of the cloth who isn’t particularly concerned about offending God. One who had nevertheless been blessed with high cheekbones and firm, rounded buttocks that a man could knead while he plunged….

The thought is enough to make Charles shift in his seat. He needs to remind the other men, as well as himself, why ploughing their papal legate would not be the wisest choice. Even if he does look particularly ravishing. 

“Though you may call yourself ‘No One,’ Your Eminence, you are in fact a particular someone’s son. And I would have an answer to the question I asked regarding the Holy Father’s attitude toward your….”

“Blasphemy?” Cesare huffs out, still amused. The smile doesn't leave his face, though it grows gentler as he considers the question. “My father would forgive me almost anything, Your Grace.” 

Given the mood of their dining companions, Charles refrains from asking whether or not Cesare was ever required to do any type of penance before he was forgiven, whether those shapely buttocks had to be offered up for chastisement before he was once again embraced by the Holy Father. It would only incense the men. And he has the terrible feeling that his own body’s reaction to the idea of Cesare being punished is more blasphemous than anything Cesare has uttered. He does, however, betray a hint of his own desires when he asks“Anything?”

Cesare nods, then gives Charles a cool yet speculative stare. “But would he forgive you?”

In the tent later on that evening, Cesare spread out before him, Charles reasons that having the pope’s forgiveness in this matter isn’t necessary. He can always receive absolution from his son.


End file.
